The Complete Guide to Japanese Iced Coffee

If you think cold brew coffee is not all it’s cracked up to be, then you are not alone. But don't give up hope, Japanese iced coffee just might be the brew for you.

Many people feel that immersion cold brew, where coffee is left in a container to steep overnight, can be dull and flavorless.

“The coffee to me is boring and you don't get the subtle notes that you get from other brewing methods.”-Julian Aicea, Chicago

Slow drip cold brew coffee extracts a wider range of flavors, but the process still takes most of the day and can be labor-intensive.

“It can be a long, methodical process. It generally takes 8-10 hours (for my brew method). Additionally, if brewing with too cold of water, the dripper can get clogged, which slows the drip significantly. In my experience, it needs to be watched closely for at least the first hour or so.”

-Chad, Portland, OR

Luckily there is another method that combines the flavor profile of slow drip, the ease of immersion, and the speed of hot brewed coffee.

Enter Japanese Iced Coffee

Other cold brew methods like immersion or slow drip use ice cold water and steep the coffee grounds for 6-12 hours.

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Brewing coffee with hot water quickly dissolves the desired flavors and aromatics in ground coffee. This allows you to extract the range of interesting flavors that coffee can produce without having to wait for hours. The coffee cools instantly as it contacts the ice, this rapid cooling locks in the flavors and volatile aromatics.

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The result: cold coffee with a full range of flavors that takes no more time to brew than hot coffee. Boom.

We’re going to look at several different ways to make delicious Japanese iced coffee at home. We talked with over 150 coffee professionals and enthusiasts from around the world about their experiences with making cold brew coffee.

We learned what they love about Japanese Iced coffee, the drawbacks, and recipes specific to each brewing device. We also have recommendations from baristas on how to achieve perfect Japanese iced coffee every time.

In this article, you will find:

I. Benefits

II. Drawbacks

III. Advice

IV. Recipes

IX. Coffee

Japanese iced coffee has several advantages over traditional cold brew coffee:

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Make Cold Brew Fast

“It makes cold coffee quickly. If you have sudden craving for an iced coffee it is a great way to make it without having to wait 24 hours for cold brew in the immersion process.”

-David Inden, Seattle, WA USA

Bright, flavorful coffee

“When done well, the Japanese iced coffee method will result in an arguably more flavorful, bright and complex brew. We can showcase a great washed Yirgacheffe coffee and not have it taste like every other cold brew that people have out there”

From Aeropress to automatic drip machine, you can make Japanese iced coffee with any coffee maker you have at home. The only difference is the ice sitting in the vessel while brewing.

Japanese Iced Coffee isn’t right for every occasion. It has its limitations, such as:

It makes just one serving at a time

“Slower for each cup (compared to keeping a bottle of cold brew already made in the fridge). Labor intensive.”

-Victor H.

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It can be challenging to achieve the right coffee strength

“You must account for the ice melting during brewing that will add to your net coffee. This requires adjusting of grind size, water added, etc. It takes some trial and error before you get a cup that you will truly enjoy.”

You can create Japanese Iced Coffee with the brewing devices you currently own. There’s no need to buy special gear, and you can even use your usual hot coffee brewing recipe with some minor tweaks.

While each brew method is unique, there are some common guidelines to follow when adjusting your recipe from from hot brew to cold brew. We had a few pros in the coffee world explain those guidelines:

Use a finer grind

“You are basically trying to dissolve the same amount of coffee as you would when brewing hot coffee but with only 2/3 the amount of water. This means the grinds need to be finer in order to dissolve the same amount but with less water.”

A Good Grind is The Key To Better Coffee

Brewing great coffee demands a consistent grind, no matter which brewing method you use. Handground was created by a community of thousands of coffee enthusiasts to make it easy to achieve a consistent grind for any brew method.

While we share top recipes from individuals in the coffee industry, we also created a "collective" recipe for brewing methods where we had enough submissions. These recipes are simply an average of all the recipes we received for that device.

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Why would we want to create an "average recipe"? The idea comes from a book called The Wisdom of Crowds, where the main idea is that crowds make better decisions than individuals under the right circumstances. We have applied this idea to French Press and Aeropress recipes with great results.

‍Weigh out ice - Put your empty mug on a gram scale, and tare/zero out the scale. Put a handful of ice cubes in the glass, around half full.

‍Adjust water level - For the amount of ice you've placed in the glass, subtract that from the amount of hot water you'll use to brew the coffee in the AeroPress. (Example: 10oz/283.5g capacity mug. Four ice cubes = 77g. 283.5g-77g = 206.5g of hot water to be added)

‍Place AeroPress with ground coffee onto the mug, and tare/zero out the scale

‍Pour 200F water onto the grounds in the AeroPress - Fill to the weight worked out in Step 2.

Rinse your filter with cool water and place 400g of good ice in the bottom of the chemex.

Replace filter and add grinds, then add 60g of water at 201 degrees F and let bloom for 30 seconds.

When the bloom is complete pour the remaining 540g of water steadily for two minutes, the filter should empty within 30 seconds. This will make 1 litre of coffee.

Iced Hario v60 from Fresh Cup Magazine

The Hario v60 is a tried and true pour over cone trusted by millions around the world. It would make sense that it is one of the most popular ways to make Japanese Iced Coffee as well.

The flow rate of the v60 is easier to control than other cones because of the large hole at the bottom of the cone and the thin paper filter. This makes the v60 very versatile; by adjusting the pour rate and grind size, you can produce very different results with the same coffee.

Here is the collective Hario v60 recipe, and then we will check out recipes from the pros:

Heat your water to a boil, weigh and grind the coffee. No need to prewet the filter

Pour 75 g of water. Let bloom for 45 second

Slow pour to 100 g of water by 1:00

Pause until 1:30

Slow pour to 180 g by 1:50

Pause until 2:00

Slow pour to 270 g by 2:30

Let drain until 3:30

You can use an automatic brewer for larger batches of Japanese Iced Coffee. The same guidelines apply to this method as all other Japanese Iced Methods: use a finer grind at a stronger water-to-coffee ratio (more coffee) to make up for the strength lost from ice.

Check out these two recipes from coffee shops using Fetco Batch Brewers to create Japanese Iced Coffee.

“We tweaked the pre-infusion settings and played with grind size [on the Fetco batch brewer). That way, you just add the ice to the bottom of a Bunn urn, set it under the Fetco, add your ground coffee to the basket--hit brew and in 5 minutes you're all set! For larger batches, we add all the ice at the beginning, then run baskets one after the other.”

Cold Brew with milk from Caravan Coffee

Japanese iced method is very flexible, but most people recommend using a light roast with bright flavors.

However, over a third of respondents said any coffee works well with Japanese iced, so choose your favorite hot coffee and try it iced.

Works with Any Coffee

“Any coffee works for this method. However not all coffees work for all methods. When brewing a high-end specialty coffee to be cold I would only use a method like this.” -Tito Pena, The Wydown Coffee Bar, Washington D.C.

“I like to use bright Kenyans because this method presents both the citrus acidity and the killer sweetness similar to an Arnold Palmer, but only coffee. Ehtipoians (washed ot naturals) also work well in this method. Honestly, I haven't found a well roasted coffee that didn't work in this method.”

The coffee community is full of passionate professionals and enthusiasts who love to share their advice on brewing better coffee. More than 150 of them responded to our questions about cold brew coffee, so we had to split up the information into 4 separate articles.

If you missed the Introduction to our Cold Brew Series, you can start here: